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Growth of muscle fibres during recovery from severe malnutrition in Jamaican Infants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 December 2008

F. M. Hansen-Smith ,
D. Picou  and
M. H. Golden
F. M. Hansen-Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anatomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
D. Picou
Affiliation:
Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7 Jamaica, West Indies
M. H. Golden
Affiliation:
Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, University of the West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7 Jamaica, West Indies
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Abstract

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1. The growth of muscle fibres was analysed by light microscopy in biopsies from subjects when malnourished, during nutritional rehabilitation, and after clinical recovery.

2. Muscle fibres from malnourished subjects were extremely atrophic (cross-sectional area, 110μm2). The fibres doubled in size during the early period of rehabilitation. Growth of muscle fibres during later periods of rehabilitation occurred at a slower rate.

3. The absolute rates of change in fibre sizes differed considerably between subjects, but the rates of change relative to the rate of gain of total body-weight (expressed as % recovery or % expected weight-for height (Nelson, 1975)) were similar between subjects after the initial growth spurt. The pattern of recovery appeared to differ between older and younger subjects.

4. Fibre sizes correlated with body-weight but not with age in the malnourished subjects. A significant correlation between fibre areas and either weight or age was observed during rehabilitation and after clinical recovery.

5. Fibre sizes of clinically-recovered subjects (mean age, 13.8 months; weight, 8.7 kg) were only approximately 60% of that for a well-nourished 6-month-old control subject (6.4 kg). These results suggest that a longer period of time is required for fibres to reach their expected size. Therefore, when the child has regained body-weight to that of a normal child of the same height, his muscles have not yet recovered and his body composition is abnormal.

Type
Papers of direct relevance to Clinical and Human Nutrition
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , March 1979 , pp. 275 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1979

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